Today's proliferation of mobile communication devices offers reliable real-time communication with instant response, allowing individuals to be connected and available at all times. SMS (Short Message Service), also known as the ubiquitous “text message” is currently the most widely used data application in the world. This convenience, however, has become an intrusion into what traditionally had been an individual's “down” time, such as while driving. Distracted driving accounts for approximately twenty-five percent of all police-reported traffic accidents and sadly many of those accidents result in death and/or serious injury. Driving while Distracted (DWD) refers to the growing trend of driving a motor vehicle while talking or texting on a mobile phone. With more than six billion mobile cellular subscribers worldwide, the risk is growing exponentially.
Some solutions have been proposed to address this growing problem. For example, United States Patent Publication No. 2005/0170869A1 “Car-Safe Messaging interfaces for interactive pagers and related methods” offers a solution to the problem by allowing a driver to quickly answer a message by selecting from predefined messages. The shortcoming to this invention is that the driver is still required to interact with the phone in order to see who is calling and select the pre-defined response. The driver must deviate his/her attention from the road in order to make the selection.
When a mobile phone is used in a car to relay notifications to users (including the driver), the notifications can be distracting to the driver, especially if they happen at times when the driver needs his/her full attention on driving. Prior efforts have included unconditionally silencing notifications while in a car, but such mechanisms are so heavy-handed that users disable them in order to not miss important notifications.
Therefore, there is a need for a method to address the problem of driver distraction, without frustrating drivers.